About Sean McAllister

Sean T. McAllister has been a leader in the emerging industries of cannabis, hemp, and psychedelic medicines. 

Sean is licensed to practice law in Colorado and California, but consults nationwide with clients where ethically permissible. With over 25 years practicing law, Sean has successfully handled thousands of important cases for clients, including:
Psychedelic Law
  • Represented therapists and doctors interested in engaging in psychedelic-assisted therapy;
  • Advising clients on the opportunities under Colorado’s Natural Health Medicine Act (Proposition 122) to engage in work with psychedelic medicines, including in the decriminalized section of the law;
  • Advised clients on what is allowed in cities that have decriminalized psychedelics;
  • Advised clients looking to obtain a religious exemption from criminal law for the use of psychedelics under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and achieving federal recognition for multiple psychedelic churches from the federal government/DEA;
  • Seeking DEA licensure for companies to manufacture Schedule I drugs lawfully in the United States;
  • Defending licensed professionals in disciplinary proceedings in front of state regulators related to psychedelic therapy
  • Advising training organizations on liability issues around training people to engage in psychedelic therapy or healing
  • Advising entrepreneurs on the legality of mushroom spores and other novel plant medicines such as Blue Lotus, amanita, and other substances;
  • Defending clients in criminal cases involving psychedelics, including achieving dismissals of all criminal charges in a large scale mushroom case in state court and an ayahuasca case involving religious use in federal court.
  • General Counsel for the Kura Alliance
  • Advisory Board member for Psychedelic Parenthood Community;
  • Former outside general counsel to MAPS’ Psychedelic Science Events, LLC;
  • Former legal Advisor to the Decriminalize Psilocybin California 2020 campaign;
  • Former chair of the Board of Directors and General Counsel of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines;
  • Former legal advisor to the Naropa University’s Psychedelic Assisted Therapy Certificate Program;
  • Executive Officer of the Denver Psilocybin Mushroom Policy Review Panel, 2020.
  • Worked on Senate Bill 519 in California and Decrim Seattle’s efforts to decriminalize psychedelics in those places.
  • Author of a book chapter on the law around ayahuasca in the U.S. The book is called “Religious Freedom and the Global Regulation of Ayahuasca,” edited by Bia Labate and Clancy Cavnar;
  • Steering Committee member and assisted in the drafting of Colorado’s Natural Medicine Health Act; and
  • Subcommittee Member of the Colorado Natural Medicine Advisory Board
Church Law

McAllister Law Office works in the highly specialized areas of non-profit church law.

The law firm has represented dozens of religious organizations from all religious traditions, including Christian, Jewish, Islamic, and Hindu organizations.

Churches require legal services for corporate start up, governance, tax compliance (501(c)(3)), employment issues, property management, and liability protection. Essential services include incorporation work, obtaining 501c3 recognition, drafting bylaws, child protection policy drafting, contract review, and managing religious freedom issues.

McAllister Law Office is passionate about its religious organization clients and is also driven by their own deep spiritual values.

The law firm seeks to work within the budget of religious organizations to meet their needs and further their spiritual mission.

Cannabis
  • Sean has handled more cannabis discipline and enforcement cases than any other law firm in Colorado.
  • Sean is the only lawyer to successfully defend and lift a summary suspension against a licensed cannabis business, resulting in a multi-million dollar company re-opening after it was wrongfully shut down.
  • Sean has represented numerous clients alleged to have violated pesticide rules and have litigated pesticide standards against both Denver and the Colorado Department of Agriculture, releasing millions of dollars of marijuana from pesticide holds.
  • Sean also regularly handles other rules violations, such as underage sales, violations related to cannabis extraction operations, and unauthorized modifications of premises.
  • Sean is often called upon to act as regulatory counsel in large cannabis and hemp transactions.
  • Sean has years of experience helping businesses obtain licensure for all types of licensed marijuana businesses including cultivations, dispensaries, infused product manufacturers, and transporters.
  • Sean has litigated numerous civil lawsuit for cannabis companies, including breach of contract, partnership disputes, employment law litigation, and lawsuits for investors to recover their money from cannabis businesses. Over his career, Sean has litigated hundreds of these cases, including dozens of cases to trial and verdict.
Regulatory
  • Responding to cease and desist actions by the state of Colorado against psychedelic decriminalization projects in Colorado;
  • Successfully defended companies and individuals in state administrative rules violation proceedings;
  • Successfully appealed the denial of a cannabis license by the City of Boulder;
  • Represented a cannabis cultivation licensee in summary suspension case where the business was shut down and was able to get the company re-opened. No Colorado licensee had previously been summarily suspended and then re-opened;
  • Represented a company through the first Colorado independent audit regarding alleged rules violations and resolved without the loss of license;
  • Defended a pesticide recall case where state and local regulators agreed to release holds on millions of dollars of cannabis wrongfully designated as contaminated;
  • Assisted in drafting of a USDA approved 2018 Farm Bill compliant tribal hemp plan;
  • Petitioner DEA to reconsider a negative CBD rule prior to the passage of the Farm Bill; and
  • Petitioned DEA for a manufacturer’s license to produce cannabis for clinical trials.
Litigation
  • Represented an owner of a licensed grow in a breach of contract litigation, where the seller of the grow license argued our client failed to pay the purchase price. Prior to trial, the seller’s only offer was for our client to pay $900,000+ to settle the case. After trial, the judge awarded our client a $502,000+ in damages due to the seller’s breach;
  • Represented dispensary owners where growers claimed to be owed money or promised ownership in exchange for their cultivation services. The verdict came back 100% in favor of the dispensary owner;
  • Defended the nation’s first product liability case against an infused product manufacturer with a successful outcome;
  • Defended Colorado’s only federal criminal prosecution of a dispensary owner for federal money laundering/Bank Secrecy Act violations with a successful outcome;
  • Defended a cannabis company in a Proposition 65 (cancer warning) lawsuit in California;
  • Sued state regulators numerous times regarding due process violations in the administration of regulatory rules; and
  • Sued a state in order to get a Native American tribe the right to grow hemp prior to the passage of the Farm Bill.
  • Handled numerous contested commercial litigation arbitrations, including an appeal of an arbitration decision.
  • Achieved a complete dismissal of a claim against a dispensary owner that he engaged in securities fraud and racketeering activities, where the plaintiff was seeking $9 million dollars and eventually dismissed the case for no money.
  • Won a contested receivership hearing for a cannabis company where a disgruntled investor was attempting to remove the company’s leadership based on allegations of mismanagement.
Business
  • Closed dozens of agreements to buy and sell business amounting to tens of millions of dollars in compliance with complex regulatory laws;
  • Helped a company negotiate and close on licensing agreements with two major celebrities;
  • Assisted companies in expanding to multiple states with intellectual property licensing agreements;
  • Helping clients understand the complex tax rules that affect the cannabis industry, including IRS Code 280E; and
  • Negotiated resolutions to disputes among business owners.
Complex Criminal Law
  • Defended Colorado’s only federal criminal prosecution of a dispensary owner for federal money laundering/Bank Secrecy Act violations with a successful outcome;
  • Defended individuals charged with felonies based on allegedly lying on applications for cannabis licenses.
  • Handled complicated felonies, including 2nd Degree Assault and sexual assault cases, through trial.
  • Represented business owners accused of felonies based on selling spice, or synthetic cannabis products.
  • Won an acquittal of a client on a vehicular homicide charge at trial.
  • Represented numerous criminal defendants accused of violating Colorado’s medical marijuana laws.
  • Achieved a complete dismissal of mandatory prison felony charges against participants of a psychedelic church in Denver, Colorado.
Sean McAllister

Sean McAllister